Broom Hill Honey

03/09/2026

Feeding the busy Bee's 🐝
All doing extremely well 🙏

01/09/2026

Beekeeping is hard!
We have had most of these problems this year alone.
It's not as easy or as fluffy as you may think...
Love it though, even the challenges of naughty Bee's 😜

This time of year can be extra stressful in the apiary. We all want our colonies going into winter with healthy, resource-rich hives, but it seems like every year around this time, the bees love to throw a monkey wrench into our plans.

If you've been managing hives long enough, you already know the golden rule: The bees do not read our books, and the bees know best.

Take my apiary lately, for instance. A few recent surprises really put that to the test:

🐝The Supercedure Surprise: One hive has a perfectly laying queen, but they suddenly decided to build supercedure cells right up in the top box. What did I do? I just left it and walked away—they will work it out. The hive is full of resources; if the new queen gets out and mates, grand! If not, I can always combine them later.

🐝The Departed Queen: Another hive lost their special queen (remember that one) to natural causes (I actually saved her to keep as a conversational piece!).

🐝The Royal Rejection: Another hive decided to ball their new queen. I had added her to this queenless hive, keeping her safely in a clip for over 24 hours. They appeared to be feeding her, acting super gentle and completely accepting—or so I thought! But the second I released her, they immediately started balling her. I scooped her up and gently pulled off the worker bees, but as she was right there in my hand, one defiant worker bee flew straight in and stung her to death right then and there IN MY HAND. There was simply no separating them. I verbalized my disgust in them, closed the hive up, and moved on. My move here? That heartbreakingly stubborn hive will be combined.

🐝The Fake Laying Worker Stunt: And just to keep me on my toes, one hive decided to pull a fake laying worker stunt—throwing me into a total panic with multiple eggs in a single cell before I realized it was just an extreme space crunch from a backfilled top box, not actual laying workers!

🐝The Stubborn Builders: And then there's the hive that decided they are completely refusing to pull new frames, choosing instead to pack all their resources tightly into the already pulled frames. For them, I'll steal resources from another strong hive and add it to theirs.
Bee Haven 2026
At the end of the day, all of these are classic "beekeeper issues." We stress over every little detail, but the colony is always reacting to its own internal wisdom and environmental cues.
Have your bees been throwing any unexpected curveballs as we head into the late-season crunch?

01/09/2026

All the girls are looking strong heading into the winter season.
Still bringing in nectar and pollen
Treatment for Varroa mites done and feeding when necessary.
Happy day's 😊 🐝🍯✨️

28/08/2026

Wise up people!
Always go to your local farm shop to buy real local Honey from hardworking Beekeepers 🍯🐝✨️

28/08/2026

I'll leave that there for you to digest...

26/08/2026

Something to be aware of!

Know where to look: the plants that draw yellow-legged hornets

As we head into late summer and autumn, keeping watch for the yellow-legged (Asian) hornet is easier if you know where they're likely to be. At this time of year they're drawn to a few reliable spots so these are well worth checking as you go about the apiary and garden.

🌿 Flowering ivy is the big one. In late summer and autumn its blooms attract huge numbers of bees, hoverflies and other insects and that dense crowd of prey is exactly what the hornets come for. They'll hawk around the flowers, hunting the pollinators feeding there rather than simply taking nectar themselves. A patch of flowering ivy on a sunny day is one of the best places to spot them.

🍎 Fallen and overripe fruit is another draw. Windfall apples, pears, plums and figs, especially once they are damaged and sweet.

🦋 Late-flowering nectar plants such as buddleia are worth a glance too.

If you do spot a yellow-legged hornet, please report it. You'll find everything you need to identify and report sightings via the link in our bio.

It is crucial all potential sightings are reported so that experts can take quick and effective action to eradicate the risk.

21/08/2026

Taking honey off today. Leaving a super or two for the Bee's, giving them space and food.
Needed the tractor 🚜 for sure!!
🐝✨️🍯♥️

21/08/2026

We have been lucky enough to have heard this too!
Quite an unusual sound so it catches your attention 🐝

19/08/2026

Hot day for us and the Bee's today, many hanging out of the hives to cool (bearding)
Grass so brown and crunchy!!
Still bringing in the pollen ✨️🐝🍯🌞

18/08/2026

Had to get a bigger honey settling tank 🤣🍯🐝✨️